


A Language The Deaf Can Hear

by iamtheoneinthehole



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-11
Updated: 2014-03-11
Packaged: 2018-01-15 07:36:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1296736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iamtheoneinthehole/pseuds/iamtheoneinthehole
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompted anonymously; Hi! Got an AH OT6 prompt for you! What about deaf!Ryan normal life with his lovers and after some time (and a lot of visit to the doctors) he hears for the first time his lovers' voices? And maybe his life after it and how happy he is, and how happy the boys seems for him. You know, cuteness everywhere.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Language The Deaf Can Hear

**Author's Note:**

> This was an absolutely beautiful prompt to write-thank you so much for suggesting it anon! I hope you like what I've done with it! :)

Ryan Haywood had been deaf ever since he could remember. As a very young child, apparently, he'd had limited hearing but it'd faded to almost nothing by the age of five and by the time he'd turned seven, the world had fallen into a constant silence... But Ryan couldn't remember any differently, so most of the time it didn't really bother him all that much. After all, it was kind of hard to miss something you'd never really experienced in the first place. In fact, in all honesty, it was the people around him that seemed to suffer more from the thought of him being deaf than Ryan did with the actual experience of deafness itself, his parents in particular often expressing their regret that their child had been forced to endure such a misfortune. But to Ryan it'd never really seemed that way. Being deaf didn't mean he was horrendously disadvantaged in life, if anything it was just another obstacle to overcome. And all people had those didn't they? Perhaps his was a little more physical than most but people had their mental or emotional demons to battle too. No one lived without facing some difficulties in life so what really was the point in lamenting his?

So it was less regret and more curiosity that made him consider what hearing must be like sometimes, imagining sounds such as his mother's lullabies that she'd sung to him as a baby (back when he'd still had just the slightest hint of hearing, enough apparently for those songs to soothe him when he cried and send him to sleep), the sound of laughter, of the wind whipping through the trees, or a bird's song. Most of all, he couldn't help but wonder how he'd sound if he ever heard himself. He'd tried asking his parents about it once but their descriptions had meant little to him given the practically non-existent base of reference he'd had to work with in that area. Eventually he'd accepted that he'd probably never really know for certain what he sounded like and had, ultimately, decided not the let it bother him. After all, he didn't need sound to define him. He'd always had a pretty good sense of self based on his mind, his appearance and his other perfectly functional senses and while it would've perhaps been nice to know, even once, what his voice was like he had enough going for him that the knowledge would be more a luxury than necessity.

Besides, there were ways of hearing that didn't necessarily include sound. There was a quote he'd read somewhere once that 'kindness was a language that the deaf could hear' and never had that rung more true than when he'd started working for Roosterteeth as a 'behind the scenes guy'. He'd always loved working with computers and technology and had spent countless hours in his younger years taking things apart to see how they worked so as to gain a better understanding of them (much to the endless chagrin of his parents who'd had to step in before he'd managed to electrocute himself several times when he was younger). He'd also grown to love video games, PC ones especially given that he'd been tinkering with the technology they utilized most of his life, to the point where he didn't feel at all at a disadvantage using the software, because he figured that his experience with the technology and his deafness kind of balanced each other out.

With other video games it was sometimes harder, especially when certain tutorials or cut scenes in the games came without a visual aid or subtitles to help guide him through various missions but he'd never really complained that much. If anything, like in life, his impairment was simply another challenge to overcome and the pride he felt whenever he managed to successfully complete a game or, later, gain an achievement was that much greater because of it. And if he ever got really stuck? Well there'd always been the online forums to fall back on. And as time had gone on and the game play in different companies had improved, adjustments had been made to the gaming industry to make it more accessible for people like him and it'd gotten easier and easier to play as an equal to anyone else who happened to pick up a copy of that game. Obviously co-op was still a struggle, but... it was a start.

Despite his passionate love of both gaming and technology, however, he'd been pretty much convinced that he'd never actually get to work in that kind of industry, not when there were other, more 'able' people who could take the jobs he'd apply for (because in an industry like gaming, there was never exactly going to be a shortage of applicants for the positions involved in that community) but when he'd applied for a position at Roosterteeth, neither Matt or Burnie had seemed to care about that, simply asking him questions about his background in gaming, which consoles and games he preferred and various other questions relating to his skill set. They'd been patient, taking their time with the questions to ensure Ryan had been able to sufficiently lip read their words, but they hadn't tried to baby him or overcompensate for his situation either which'd been... refreshing to say the least. And at the end of the interview it hadn't been a question of 'how will we make this work' or 'are you sure you don't want to try something a little more suited to your 'condition'' (as he'd been told at a few of the other interviews he'd had before he'd applied here), it'd been 'when can you start'.

A week later he'd been set up in the Roosterteeth warehouse, already hard at work on one of their projects and he'd never looked back since. He'd ended up working mostly with a couple of men called Geoff Ramsey and Jack Pattillo when he'd first arrived, being assigned to manage the 'game fails' channel which was easy enough given that the fails were usually pretty visual which made it fairly easy to distinguish a video with good content from one with footage that was less impressive. Both men were friendly enough, proving to be as patient as Matt and Burnie had been in the interview when they'd first started working together and, over time, they'd begun to form their own little in-jokes relating to the content they worked with or things that happened around the office. Neither of them had ever treated him differently, they treated him as their equal and, more importantly, their friend and as more time passed Ryan found himself developing feelings for the pair of them.

Then other people had started joining the Achievement Hunter crew as Gavin (a cheeky Brit with a bright smile and a sense of humor that, however strange it might be, never failed to make Ryan smile) transferred over from working on Red VS Blue, Michael (or the ragequit guy as Ryan had known him then) and Ray (a new kid who, supposedly, had one of the best gamer scores out of anyone Roosterteeth had ever hired) joining not long after that. Initially, Ryan had begun to feel a little pushed out as the new hunters had settled in, starting to film 'Let's Plays' that progressively started to take up more and more of Geoff and Jack's time to the point that Ryan hardly saw them.

But then Geoff had started talking to Ryan about maybe helping them set up some Let's Plays for PC games and the others had all seemed pretty enthusiastic about the idea to the point that Ryan was pretty sure he wouldn't have been able to say no even if he'd wanted to (and he really hadn't). So he'd started walking the boys through the basics of some PC games, brushing off Jack's subtle hints that maybe the best way for him to help them run these Let's Plays would be to take part in them himself. It was a nice idea but co-op didn't exactly work out so great when you needed your eyes to communicate as much as you did to play the game. Eventually the man had dropped the subject.

Apparently though at least one of the 'lads' (as they'd begun to call themselves, and really that shouldn't be as strangely endearing as it was) had overheard Jack's suggestions because when he'd dropped the matter, Michael, Gavin and Ray had been quick to pick it up, releasing a barrage of puppy dog eyes (which were actually pretty effective but so was Ryan's force of will so they'd had little luck on that front) and various attempted bribes to the point where Ryan had acceded a little. He still wasn't willing to appear in Let's Plays but if the boys really wanted to see how bad he was at co-op he was willing to play with them outside of the office.

A week later had found team lads plus Ryan squished in together on Geoff's couch as they played Halo in a 4 way co-op (which actually turned out a lot better than expected given the fact that they were all sharing the same screen meaning Ryan was able to catch glimpses of the other's characters and adjust his tactics effectively to compliment them. Sure, he was still no Ray but he still seemed to be doing better than Gavin (honestly though Ryan couldn't help but wonder if the Brit was deliberately playing himself up to make him feel better, or at least he had been until he'd turned to Jack only to find him rolling his eyes as if this was a common occurrence when they were filming the Let's Plays. After Halo they'd then moved onto Peggle (which, apparently, had become Gavin and Geoff's guilty pleasure) and the six had played their way through several levels, cheering each other on as much with their physicality as their voices (especially Michael and Gavin who'd literally started jumping up and down at one point as they'd called out their support for Geoff) and after Peggle onto pizza and Ryan found himself finally getting to know the men who'd been working with Geoff and Jack all this time.

He found out, for instance, that Michael would eat almost anything if he was bet enough money to do so and that he had a guilty pleasure when it came to my little pony and, perhaps more secretly, crappy movies. He found out that Ray, as well as easily being one of the best gamers working for Roosterteeth, was also pretty great at making people laugh and that he actually genuinely did love roses. Ryan had already known Gavin a little from seeing him around the office back when the Brit had been working on Red VS Blue, plus there was the fact that he'd been Geoff's roommate from pretty much the moment he'd set foot in the states so they'd run into each other more than a few times before now, but now Ryan found himself seeing beyond the hyperactivity that it was pretty hard to miss when you first met the man through to his strange Gavin-esqe sense of wisdom (that still wasn't quite wise but the man still seemed to have his moments). By the end of the night, Ryan felt that he'd learned more about them than he'd managed to glean from months of working for the same company and after that he found himself far less jealous when he didn't see as much of Geoff or Jack because after that he'd seem to cement some kind of unspoken bond with the lads to the point that, provided they weren't all filming a Let's Play, there'd almost always be one of them at his desk watching what he was doing and nudging him when they wanted to comment on it or engage him in some other kind of conversation. Of course this meant that Ryan was perhaps a little less productive than before, his hours being cut into largely by Gavin's dumb questions, Ray's jokes or snarky remarks about anything and everything and Michael's apparent need for attention (which usually resulted in the least productive days Ryan spent at the office) though he couldn't say he minded all that much. It was nice to have the extra company and more than worth the knowing looks he occasionally got from Lindsay (the woman sat one desk over from him who he'd ended up bonding with over cats and impossible deadlines during the time they'd spent working together) once they both realized that somewhere along the lines it'd stop being just Jack and Geoff that he'd developed a thing for.

Lindsay had often tried to convince him to 'get off his ass and go for it', complete with wide frustrated gestures, after one of the boys had paid a visit to his desk, pointing out that they didn't come all the way out here for just anybody and that she was pretty sure the game and pizza nights at Geoff and Gavin's house (which'd become a weekly ritual after that first time) were their own way of 'courting' Ryan since they were far too damn stubborn to actually come out and admit what it all meant, at least not without someone giving them a nudge or two. He'd usually roll his eyes at her claims, signing her a quick response (since Lindsay had made it her personal mission to learn it after realizing none of the idiots they worked with had actually managed to get a decent grasp on language in all the time he'd worked there. Geoff and Jack knew a little and the lads, from what he could tell, were attempting to learn but mostly they all just relied on the fact he could lip read pretty well and speak when he needed to. He'd told her he didn't mind since he could lip read just fine but she'd refused to hear any of it, telling him that it was too late since she'd already set it as her goal and there was no turning back now. He'd just have to deal with it. As it'd turned out she'd picked up the language almost overnight, much to Michael's frustration whenever she'd teased him about it, and now she was practically fluent to the point that the pair of them could, and often did, have secret conversations with each other) that would make her laugh, and allowing himself a moment to wonder what that sounded like, before they both returned to their work, subject dropped (for now at least).

In the end, Ryan hadn't needed to take Lindsay's advice because Michael had taken the initiative instead. The redhead had taken a seat on the edge of his desk like usual one day, prodding him in the shoulder perhaps a little more insistently than usual, until Ryan had eventually looked away from his work only to find the rest of the achievement hunter office stood behind him, all with varying degrees of nervousness written across their features... And then Michael had signed the words 'Will you go out with us?' He'd blinked, shocked for a moment (though whether he was more shocked by the offer or the fact that Michael had managed to actually sign something he wasn't entirely sure) before a grin had broken out across his features and he'd nodded, the word 'yes' crossing his lips before he'd even had time to think about it but it was worth it for the happy grin that'd immediately broken out across the redhead's features in return and as Ryan's eyes moved from him to the others gathered behind him he realized it was a sentiment that they all seemed to share (damn Lindsay really had been right all along hadn't she?).

Their first 'official' date (since Lindsay maintained those game and pizza nights totally counted even if they had all been idiots and in denial at the time. She'd then added that they were still idiots but at least they were now slightly less oblivious ones) had been a quiet evening in at Geoff and Gavin's, the former cooking them dinner while the rest of them just sat and talked about anything and everything. The 'getting to know you' factor had already been taken care of long before that point so instead they'd talked about meaningless things and answered a seemingly endless barrage of Gavin's dumb questions to the point that they were all in fits of laughter and Geoff was ready to lay the food out on the table (he'd claimed since this was their first date they were going to be fucking classy about it and that they could go back to pizza on the floor next week). As it turned out, the man was a great cook and Ryan couldn't help but feel a little deprived for only tasting his food now after all the years they'd known each other. They'd ended up polishing off the meal with a few drinks (or 'bevs' as Gavin called them) before ultimately admitting defeat and allowing themselves to give into the urge to put Geoff's xbox to good use (old habits died hard he guessed).

After a few hours of messing about in Achievement City (which the boys had taken it upon themselves to give him the grand tour of despite the fact that he'd already seen most of it though peeking over at Lindsay's screen when she edited their videos) they'd somehow ended up in a mess of tangled limbs that almost resembled snuggling (though none of them would ever admit to that), Ryan's hand idly carding through Gavin's hair as Ray curled into his side and he leant against Jack's solid, warm and reassuring weight. His feet were tangled with Geoff's, Michael having sprawled himself across the older man's lap in a way that'd made them all chuckle when he had, resulting in him flipping the bird at them before settling back down against the man's chest. It'd been Ray who'd eventually shifted a little, the movement catching Ryan's attention just seconds before he found the man suddenly a lot closer, their breath mingling as their eyes meet for a brief moment and then suddenly he was being kissed, softly at first and then harder as all of the tension that'd worked itself up between them seemed to boil over, Ryan's hand catching in the man's hair as Ray's caught in his shirt, tugging him closer still. They'd only eventually broken apart when he'd felt a sharp nudge in his side, turning to face the man responsible only to end up with a sudden lapful of Brit and the mouthed words 'my turn' before another pair of lips had met his at the same time as Jack's hands had started to wander south. The last coherent thought Ryan had managed that night was a 'so much for Geoff's being classy on the first date' before the man in question had switched places with Gavin, the Brit moving over to join Ray and Michael as Geoff caught his lips in a harsh, demanding kiss hands trailing south to join Jack's and effectively throwing all sense of coherency out of the window for a little while.

Later, when they'd all found themselves sprawled across the floor (since there was no way in hell Geoff's bed was big enough for all of them) in the afterglow, Ryan couldn't help but muse that he'd never felt happier than he did in that moment.

As more time passed and their relationship thrived, Ryan found himself moving in with his boyfriends (thankfully to a bigger house with a bigger bed), the new place coming equipped with a few subtle differences that'd left him incredibly touched when he'd found out about them. Perhaps the best of these had been the fact that they'd somehow managed to rig up three screens next to each other so they'd only have to split screen once on each but they'd still all be able to play together without Ryan being at too much of a disadvantage. He'd also noticed the numerous whiteboards scattered about the walls, for days that Ryan didn't feel like talking, as well as the several volumes of asl that his boyfriends were gradually becoming more and more proficient in. Lindsay, of course, could still run rings around them but she had picked up the language almost scarily quickly so that wasn't exactly an insult to his boyfriends' progress.

It was nice really, to think that they knew him well enough to know which things would make his life a little easier without him even needing to ask anymore. They'd just reached that point he supposed, the point that people often referred to as when you were able to have silent conversations with your partner (or partners) and for a man like Ryan, that kind of skill was kind of invaluable really.

And when it came to his boyfriends, they all had their ways of being heard that required no words whatsoever. His mind again went back to the quote about 'the language the deaf could hear' whenever he found himself cuddling with Jack on the sofa after a long day at the office, or playing a game with Ray as the man tried to walk him through the basics of the game play, or trading dumb post-its with Gavin (a tradition the pair had started about two weeks into their relationship and had somehow never really stopped. Ryan was pretty sure it had something to do with the dumb smiles he knew he was wearing whenever he found one sitting on his monitor at work or discovered one somewhere hidden around their shared home), or having long make out sessions with Michael which the redhead claimed were making up for lost time, or sitting with Geoff as he tested out the signs he'd learned so far, the gent getting progressively better at communicating that way every day to the point that even Lindsay had been impressed. It wasn't as if he could hear their voices but their kindness and all the little things that made them who they were spoke louder than any voice ever could.

But despite that he found that, more and more as time went on, he _wanted_ to hear them. More than anything. More than he wanted to know the sound of laughter, or the wind or the goddamn birds, he wanted to hear his boyfriends speak when they told him they loved him... So he'd began to speak with the doctors about treatment. He didn't tell his boyfriends, not right away, not wanting to get their hopes up until he'd found a doctor with a treatment that she claimed would take time and patience but would have a pretty good chance of restoring his hearing at least partially, if not completely. Ryan had barely had to think about it before he'd agreed to the procedure.

The night after that he'd told his boyfriends the news, taking in the various degrees of shock and wary hope that seemed to creep across their features as he'd told them what the doctor had told him, Geoff and Michael stubbornly demanding to see her credentials (in order to fully assess the likelihood of her words being true) meanwhile Ray and Gavin, seemingly still in shock, had asked timid, hopeful questions about how long the procedure would take and were the chances of Ryan's regaining his hearing good? Jack had been the only one who'd remained silent for a while before finally capturing Ryan's attention and asking if this was what he really wanted. He'd seemed to relax a little after the nod he'd received in response, joining Gavin and Ray with their questions about the procedure whilst Michael and Geoff continued to weigh up her reliability. By the end of the evening, they'd all been various degrees of hopeful and excited as he'd talked to them about his first appointment with the doctor the following week, an appointment they'd all immediately demanded that they be allowed to tag along to (work be damned Geoff had argued when Ryan had pointed out that all of them coming would leave only Lindsay and Caleb to man achievement hunter while they were gone), and that night when they'd all fallen asleep together Ryan had been the last to drift off, thoughts swirling in his head of all the things he stood to gain if the treatment worked out, the new experiences he'd be able to have and finally being able to hear the five men whose voices he'd been trying to figure out in his head ever since he'd met them, the sounds he wanted to hear most in the whole damn world.

In the end it'd taken months of treatment and a couple of weeks off from work (which Burnie had allowed without thinking about it) before he'd been able to go through with the final procedure, his boyfriends signing him messages of support (and a couple of 'I love yous') before he'd been taken away to carry out the procedure. The last thing he'd seen before he'd gone under was his doctor's reassuring smile before the drugs had taken hold of his system and he'd drifted into hazy unconsciousness.

____

"Ryan?" He faintly registered the sound, his groggy mind taking a moment before he figured out exactly what the word was meant to be... his name. Then suddenly his brain caught up with him and he realized exactly what he'd registered before... the _sound_ of his name which meant...

He'd gradually forced his eyes open to the sight of his five boyfriends and the doctor gathered around his bed, the woman smiling, something knowing in her gaze, as she'd left the six men alone in the room. There'd been a beat of silence except for the faint whirring of the machines that Ryan couldn't help but notice because how could he _not_ notice something like that after a lifetime of silence and then, "Hey Rye-bread." He could feel his bottom lip quivering a little, his hands shaking as the unshed tears he hadn't even been aware were forming moments ago began to fall across his cheeks, but he was smiling wider than he'd ever smiled before because he'd just heard Michael's voice and god it was fucking beautiful.

"I take it the treatment worked then," Jack added and Ryan hadn't even needed to turn around to know what he was saying because he'd been able to hear him, to actually _hear_ his boyfriend as he spoke actual words to him and somehow it was that revelation that'd sent Ryan into what was probably hysterical laughter, the realization that he finally knew what laughter sounded like just making him laugh that much harder and a few moments later he found it joined by the sounds of his other boyfriends as they joined him, perhaps in the hysteria as well as the laughter, and fuck if it wasn't the most incredible, beautiful, wonderful moment of his goddamn life so far.

"I think that's a yes Jack," Ray eventually responded after a few moments, moving to gently entwine his fingers with Ryan's as said man wondered at the sound of his voice, the rest of the room's laughter finally beginning to die down a little.

"Guess that means you'll have no more excuses not to take up the offer to join our Let's Plays then." Geoff teased, the subtle lilt to his voice as he did entrancing him for a moment before he'd even been able to decipher his words, far too focused on the luxury of hearing him to truly focus on what was being said.

"We love you Ryan," Gavin had finally offered after a few moments, his voice subtly different from the others in a way that was probably to do with the accent the others had always talked about, but no less perfect than the rest of them and Ryan had found himself letting out a breathless laugh, grinning impossibly wider before responding.

"I love you too." And finally he was able to put a sound to his parents descriptions, finally he was able to know what they'd meant when they'd describe a 'rich tone' to his voice (though he was pretty sure it'd always pale in comparison to the sound of his boyfriend's) or a 'deep sort of resonance' (that came out almost as a weaker, and perhaps a little shakier, version of Jack's in that respect), finally after all these years his childhood curiosity could be laid to rest. Because with those four words he heard the voice he'd never had the chance to know he'd had and honestly he couldn't imagine four words better or more fitting than those to hear it with.


End file.
